US to provide 80,000 tonness food aid to BD

DHAKA: Embassy Chargé d’ Affaires Nicholas Dean, and USAID Mission Director Richard Greene handed-over 60,000 tonnes of wheat to the government in Chittagong Tuesday.  

This shipment is the first tranche of almost 80,000 tonnes of food aid commodities (wheat, lentils, peas and vegetable oil) that the United States will provide to Bangladesh in 2012 under the Food for Peace program.

This represents a 2,500 tonnes increase in food aid over last year.  

The US Government, acting through its principal development agency, USAID, will invest $45.5 million in food aid in Bangladesh this year.  

The current Food for Peace program was initiated in June 2010 in partnership with the Government of Bangladesh and will continue until May 2015.

Food for Peace programs target the poorest of the poor who live in the most food insecure and vulnerable areas in Bangladesh.

Assistance is designed to bridge the gap between disaster response and development by supporting planning and preparedness activities.  

The goal of these programs is to reduce food insecurity and vulnerability in the poorest and most marginalized sub-districts in Bangladesh.  

The programs focus on the following objectives to reduce food insecurity: improved health and nutritional status of targeted households, particularly children less than five years of age; increased production and income for poor and extremely poor households in order to improve access to food; and protection of the lives and assets of households in targeted communities, enabling them to quickly resume livelihood activities following natural disasters.

USAID manages Food for Peace programs in Bangladesh, which are implemented by CARE Bangladesh, Save the Children International, and ACDI/VOCA Bangladesh.  

The US Government, through USAID, has provided over $5.8 billion in development assistance to Bangladesh since 1971.  In 2011 alone, USAID provided more than $180 million to improve the lives of people in Bangladesh.

USAID supports programmes in Bangladesh that:  promote democratic institutions and practices; expand food security and economic opportunity; improve health and education services; and increase resiliency to climate change through adaptation and low carbon development.

BDST: 1720 HRS, JUN 26, 2012

Edited by: Abul Kalam Azad, Newsroom Editor/ M. Mahbub Alam, Asst Output Editor